Difficult Emotions: Fear Quotes

Discover a thoughtful selection of quotes that explore fear within the landscape of difficult emotions. The lines balance uncertainty with courage, inviting calm reflection and a grounded view of risk and safety. Use these words to name what feels unsettled, notice protective signals, and consider measured responses. Drawn from varied voices, the collection offers concise prompts that normalize fear while pointing toward resilience, presence, and steady curiosity.

Similar topics:Anger Anxiety Betrayal Loneliness Sadness

"Bravery is being the only one who knows you're afraid"

Franklin P. Jones, Journalist

Franklin P. Jones

"Action conquers fear"

Peter Nivio Zarlenga, Businessman

Peter Nivio Zarlenga

"Fear is not real. The only place that fear can exist is in our thoughts of the future. It is a product of our imagination, causing us to fear things that do not at present and may not ever exist"

Will Smith, Actor

Will Smith

"The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it. It's our fear of the dark that casts our joy into the shadows"

Brené Brown, Author

Brené Brown

"He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears"

Michel de Montaigne, Philosopher

Michel de Montaigne

"It is not these well-fed long-haired men that I fear, but the pale and the hungry-looking"

Julius Caesar, Leader

"There is nothing that man fears more than the touch of the unknown. He wants to see what is reaching towards him, and to be able to recognize or at least classify it. Man always tends to avoid physical contact with anything strange"

Elias Canetti, Author

Elias Canetti

"It’s not about being fearless. It’s about being comfortable with fear"

Alex Honnold, Athlete

Alex Honnold

"Never take counsel of your fears"

Andrew Jackson, President

Andrew Jackson

"What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow"

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Author

Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley

"Fear is the parent of cruelty"

James Anthony Froude, Historian

James Anthony Froude

"Courage is doing what you are afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you are scared"

Eddie Rickenbacker, Aviator

"Curiosity will conquer fear even more than bravery will"

James Stephens, Poet

"Fear is the tax that conscience pays to guilt"

George Sewell, Actor

"The difference between a hero and a coward is one step sideways"

Gene Hackman, Actor

"If a man harbors any sort of fear, it percolates through all his thinking, damages his personality, makes him landlord to a ghost"

Lloyd C. Douglas, Clergyman

"To him who is in fear everything rustles"

Sophocles, Author

Sophocles

"Fear is the lengthened shadow of ignorance"

Arnold H. Glasow, Businessman

Arnold H. Glasow

"Fear is the thought of admitted inferiority"

Elbert Hubbard, Writer

Elbert Hubbard

"Neither a man nor a crowd nor a nation can be trusted to act humanely or to think sanely under the influence of a great fear"

Bertrand Russell, Philosopher

Bertrand Russell

"Fear is the main source of superstition, and one of the main sources of cruelty. To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom"

Bertrand Russell, Philosopher

Bertrand Russell

"Expose yourself to your deepest fear; after that, fear has no power, and the fear of freedom shrinks and vanishes. You are free"

Jim Morrison, Musician

Jim Morrison

"A cheerful frame of mind, reinforced by relaxation... is the medicine that puts all ghosts of fear on the run"

George Matthew Adams, Philosopher

George Matthew Adams

"The thing you fear most has no power. Your fear of it is what has the power. Facing the truth really will set you free"

Oprah Winfrey, Entertainer

Oprah Winfrey

"The monsters are in your own head"

Paula Cole, Musician

Paula Cole

"My only fear is the unknown"

David Blaine, Entertainer

"In the ring, I never really knew fear"

Rocky Marciano, Athlete

"The fear of life is the favorite disease of the 20th century"

William Lyon Phelps, Educator

"The amygdala in the emotional center sees and hears everything that occurs to us instantaneously and is the trigger point for the fight or flight response"

Daniel Goleman, Author

"The roots of homophobia are fear. Fear and more fear"

George Weinberg, Psychologist

"The first and great commandment is, don't let them scare you"

Elmer Davis, Journalist

Elmer Davis

"Somehow our devils are never quite what we expect when we meet them face to face"

Nelson DeMille, Author

"Fear tastes like a rusty knife and do not let her into your house"

John Cheever, Writer

"What scares me is what scares you. We're all afraid of the same things. That's why horror is such a powerful genre. All you have to do is ask yourself what frightens you and you'll know what frightens me"

John Carpenter, Director

"I think in the case of horror, it's a chance to confront a lot of your worse fears and those fears usually have to do, ironically, with powerlessness and isolation"

Adam Arkin, Actor

"A word does not frighten the man who, in acting, feels no fear"

Sophocles, Author

Sophocles

"Do the thing we fear, and death of fear is certain"

Ralph Waldo Emerson, Philosopher

Ralph Waldo Emerson

"A man who fears suffering is already suffering from what he fears"

Michel de Montaigne, Philosopher

Michel de Montaigne

"Fear has many eyes and can see things underground"

Miguel de Cervantes, Novelist

Miguel de Cervantes

"Boldness is a mask for fear, however great"

John Dryden, Poet

John Dryden

Page 1 of 12